BU1.LETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. 



LEAFLETS FROM THE NOTEBOOK 



ARCHi:OLOGlCAL TRAVELER 



ASIA MINOR 



J. R, SITLINGTON STERRETT, Ph. D. 



AUSTIN: 
PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS. 
STATE PBIKTING OFFICE. 
1889. 



BULLETIN OF THE 'amyERSITY OF TEXAS. 



LEAFLETS FROM THE NOTEBOOK 



ARCHJIOLOGICAL TRAYELER 



ASIA MINOR 



X 



jKrISITLINGTON STERRETT, Ph. D. 



AUSTIN: 
PUBLISHED BY THE UNIYERSITr OP TEXAS. 
STATE PRINTING OFFICE. 
1889. 






t« ezcUifi 

^' > Lib. 

Jt22'07 



AN 

ARCHJIOLOGICAL TRAVELER IN ASIA mOR. 



\ There is ever a charm aBout the quaint unchanging Orient. The traveler 
soon finds that his heart has been led captive by his romantic surroundings^ 
and the chains which bind him to the East become riveted all the more 
firmly if he deal in ancient lore, if he tread the ground "for the sake of 
ages," seeking "in the sands of time" for the "footprints" of men that are 
gone long centuries ago. He may have traveled in the East before; its 
scenes may all be familiar, but nevertheless he is always charmed anew as 
the steamer approaches its destined port. 'n Everything around him breathes 
of poetry and romance; the beturbaned crowd with its brilliant costumes, 
and the life on the wharfs, in the streets and bazars, are ever new and 
strange. Nature, too, is so beautiful, the air so sweet, the sun so gorgeous, 
not " obscurely bright, but one unclouded blaze of living light." The trav- 
eler is indeed in a new world, where, strange as it may seem, even the dirt 
charms, to say nothing of the dogs and the beggars7\ 

OUTFIT AND METHOD OP SCIENTIFIC TRAVEL IN TURKEY. 

The first work of the Archgeologist upon arriving in Asia Minor is to 
complete his outfit. This will be more or less elaborate according to the 
means at his disposal and the length, of (time he proposes to be absent in the 
interior. There are no hotels in the interior — if I may except the caravan- 
saries in the larger towns; and although one would rarely have to suffer the 
direst necessities in case he should choose to- travel in sole reliance upon the 
hospitahty of the natives — for the Turks, in common with all semi-civilized 
nations, have the virtue of hospitality — yet for many reasons the scientific 
traveler must go prepared to be wholly independent of native hospitality. 
Owing to the light in which Moslems regard their women, that is, owing to 
the fact that the women must be secluded as much as possible in the harem, 
the hospitahty offered to the stranger is wholly different from that to which 
you are accustomed. A man can not invite a guest into his house and enter- 
tain him, as we do, at a table presided over by his wife. But every well-to- 
do Moslem, and in fact many in very moderate circumstances, have a room 
or rooms sacred to the men. These rooms are called the Selamlih, while 
that part of the house sacred to the women is the Harem or Hamcmlik, as 
every one knows. A more common name for the Selamlik is Oda, or guest- 
chamber, and every stranger, be he Moslem, Christian, Jew, bond or free, 
has the undisputed right to take possession of this Oda without so much as 
saying "By your leave" to the house-owner. On entering a village the 
traveler who has to claim the hospitality of the natives asks the first person 
he meets to point out an Oda. He then proceeds directly to it and takes pos- 
session. The house-owner regards the stranger who thus quarters himself 
xipon him as the owner for the time being of the Oda, and strives as much 
as possible to place himself in the light of the one obliged. The guest and 
his whole party are fed from the kitchen of the house-owner. At the meals 
all eat together, master, and servant, Moslem and Christian, sitting cross- 
legged on the floor around the low circular table. Along the sides of the 



4 An Archceological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

cMef room of the Oda run the broad divans covered with rich Oriental 
prayer rugs. As the stranger enters the master of the house and all who 
may chance to be present rise respectfully to their feet. No word is spoken ; 
no salutation is given ; the stranger is silently motioned to the seat of honor. 
"When he has been comfortably seated the servants, or if the house-owner 
belong to the class which cannot or does not keep servants, then some male 
member of his household, gives him a cigarette and a cup of hot coffee in 
token of welcome. When he has taken a whiff of the cigarette and a sip of 
the coffee, then all present salute him, making the Salaam, which typifies the 
raising of the hem of the stranger's garment to the heart, to the lips, and to the 
forehead, and which means. "I am yours to command with my heart, with 
my mouth, with my mind." The stranger must not return this salutation 
collectively, but must make his Salaam to each individual present. Then all 
present bid him heartily welcome and inquire affectionately after his health 
and all that concerns him and his. The master o^f the house in addition begs 
the stranger to accept the house and to command' him in all respects. But I 
have said that it is best for the scientific traveler to go with such an outfit 
that he can be wholly independent of native hospitality. The reasons are 
the following: Those who entertain him in their houses naturally enough 
expect him to talk to them. This talk is very entertaining and amusing as long 
as one is a novice in the country, for the reason that it is always naive and 
childlike prattle. They discuss the rotundity of the world, for instance, gen- 
erally defending the negative side of the question ; they ask you whether the 
sun moves; how much tribute you countrymen pay to their Sultan; what 
your business is; how many brothers and sisters you have, and -a thousand 
other questions of a like nature. They examine with unconcealed pleasure 
and astonishment your rifle, your revolver, your knife, your pen, your pen- 
cils, your helmet, your corduroy suit, your stockings and shoes. This of 
course grows monotonous if one is compelled to go through such an exami- 
nation several times a day. But worst of all the acceptance of native 
hospitality makes it impossible for the traveler to find time for writing out 
in durable and plain form his road-notes of the day and for copying into 
a second book the inscriptions he may have found during the day. But if 
he travel with his own tents, cook, servants and horses, then he simply has 
his tents pitched in the neighborhood of a village, from which to get supplies 
for man and beast, and being real master in his own house he can write to 
his heart's content, and need pay no attention whatever to the inquisitive 
mob of villagers who ever throng his camp. 

EOUTE-SUEVEYING AND MAP-MAKING. 

My plan of travel was to explore those regions of country which were blanks 
or virtual blanks on the old maps. I aimed to leave my camp at sunrise, di- 
recting my cook to go with the baggage and encamp at a given village some 
three or four hours distant. They would reach the village agreed upon by 
noon; the tents would be pitched ; the cook would busy himself in preparing 
the evening meal, while the baggage servants, after the camp and horses had 
been properly cared for, would scour the village in quest of inscriptions, it be- 
ing a part of their duty to report to me immediately upon my arrival in camp. 
After leaving camp in the morning I made it my business to visit every village 
in the whole region of country between the camp of the morning and that of 
the evening. Every village was searched for inscriptions and other remains 
of antiquity; every one was questioned in regard to these things, and every 
scrap of information in regard to the whereabouts of inscriptions or ruins 



An ArchcBological Travele^^ in Asia Minor. 5 

"was made use of or put to the test at once. Often information thus gained 
would turn out to be false or at least erroneous, but still I could never afford 
to neglect any hint, however much I might be disposed to suspect it. Before 
leaving camp in the morning I took accurate bearings with the prismatic 
compass of all the surrounding country. As soon as I was m the saddle I 
noted down first the time of starting, and then the direction in which I was 
heading. At every point where the road changed its general direction per- 
ceptibly, I noted down the time of day and the new direction. "When cross- 
ing a brook or river, I noted down the time of day, the direction from 
which the water came and the direction in which it flowed. After traveling 
for half an hour or an hour at most, I would dismount from my horse, plant 
my large compass, and while the needle was becoming steady, make a note 
of the whole surrounding country. Then when the needle of the compass 
had become stationary, it was but the work of a moment to read off from 
the comj)ass and note down the bearings of all the villages m sight, and of 
all the prominent objects, whether mountains or hills. This had to be 
repeated at least once every, hour; oftener if the country was rugged and 
difficult. 

Geographers have established the fact that the average horse at an average 
gait will pass over three English miles and one-half in one hour. Conse- 
quently the traveler must keep an accurate account of every moment of 
time, and so he is compelled to ride along with watch, compass, notebook, 
and pencil constantly in hand, ready to jot down anything of importance at 
the very moment when first he becomes aware of it. This is the way in 
which the map of unknown districts is filled out. Of course such work is 
only preliminary, but it is the best that can be done or be hoped for until it 
be possible to make a regular scientific survey of the whole country, and for 
Asia Minor that day is in the distant future, unless the Turkish Empire be 
merged into that of some Christian nation. My day would accordingly be 
taken up with a route survey of the country, and with copying the inscrip- 
tions which I might chance to find. My aim was to reach camp at about four 
o'clock in the afternoon. Upon my arrival I would find the camp beset with 
villagers sitting in a circle around the cook, intently watching his operations 
and those of the other servants. All would rise to their feet out of respect 
to me. I made it my first business to question them minutely, notebook in 
hand, not only concerning inscriptions but also concerning the topography of 
the whole region of country round about their village. When I had pumped 
all their topographical knowledge out of them and got enough information 
to enable me to shape my course intelligently on the following day, I 
thanked them, and then betook myself to my tent in order to write out my 
road-notes, copy my inscriptions, and eat my dinner. By this time night 
had come and my day's work was done. 

WHEEE INSCRIPTIONS ARE FOUND. 

r 

i When the hordes of Turcoman shepherds left their original home in 
Turkistan in quest of better homes in the west, they attacked and conquered 
the effete Byzantine Empire. Being zealous Mohammedans they hated with 
an intense hatred the Greeks, who were the chief representatives of Chris- 
tianity in the East. They were not content with simply conquering the 
Greek or Byzantine empire, but they aimed to destroy all traces of the 
Greek civilization as well. "^ The demon of destruction held high carnival, 
and in this way there disappeared buildings that belonged not only to the 
Christian period, but also many of the remains of the classical pagan civili- 



6 An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

zation, which had been spared by time and the fanaticism of the early Chris- 
tians. Much ruin was wrought, and many documents in stone of priceless 
value to the historian perished at the hands of the invaders ; but still the un- 
dertaking was too vast for even the destructive powers of the Turk, and 
many precious monuments and inscriptions are still spared to tell their tale 
even at this late day, each adding its mite to our knowledge of the history of 
the past?) It is the part of the traveling Archaeologist to hunt up these 
remain'gpwhether they be monumental or epigraphical. 

After the first fury of the storm of devastation had passed, the Turks, who 
were then pure nomads and are still semi-nomads, bethought themselves that 
their idea of empire might be more easily realized were they to abandon their 
nomadic habits and become residents in fixed abodes for at least a part of the 
year. For this purpose houses were absolutely necessary. But they had ruth- 
lessly destroyed everything, and they did not possess architectural skill suffi- 
cient to erect buildings in any way comparable to those they had destroyed. 
However, a roof over their heads during the winter was all they aimed at; 
it mattered not that the houses were ill built and shabby in the extreme. 
After fixing upon sites for their villages, their first thought was to build 
mosques, and in building them they utihzed the ancient stones, which were 
always well hewn and easy to handle. The interstices were filled in with 
small unhewn stones and mud mortar. To this use of old stones is due the 
fact that many stones bearing inscriptions are found in the walls of mosques. 
In inserting such stones into the wall of the mosque, they paid no attention 
whatever to the inscription. Chance alone decided whether if should fall on 
the outside or be buried in the wall. Even when the inscription did fall on 
the outside of the wall, it is rarely right side up, but in most cases it either lies 
sidewise or is upside down. The Turks are' very particular about their 
drinking water, and they compare notes about the water of two given vil- 
lages or localities in precisely the same way that German connoisseurs discuss 
their beer. The cool freshness and purity of water is highly prized, not 
only for drinking purposes and household use, but also for the ablutions so 
necessary before prayer. Owing to these facts the public fountains, with 
which every village and every mosque of any importance are abundantly 
supplied, take rank immediately after the mosques. Some attempt at archi- 
tectural beauty is always visible in the fountains, and how could this coveted 
beauty be attained better than by making use of the fine old stones of the 
hated infidels? There are then two places within the limits of every village 
which the Archaeological traveler must examine, — the mosque and the foun- 
tains; and if the village be anywhere in the neighborhood of an ancient town, 
he is almost sure to discover inscriptions in the walls of one or of both these 
structures. Outside of the village the Archaeologist must also examine care- 
fully the old Turkish cemeteries, which in many cases are situated far from 
a village. As is well known the Turks have great respect for the graves of 
their fathers. A grave is inviolate, and must have a stone at its head and 
foot to signify its sacred character forever. It does not make a particle of 
difference what may be the character of the stones used, provided only they 
be large a;nd heavy, for then they will stand erect and mark the spot as a 
grave for ages after the mound over the grave has been completely leveled. 
The early Turks then used the ancient stones of the GraBCO-Roman period 
not only for building their mosques and fountains, but also for tombstones, 
and their cemeteries exhibit the queerest and most ridiculous jumble of all 
sorts of ancient marbles. Altars of the pagan gods, round, cubical, and 
horned altars, huge columns and epistyle blocks from temples, Roman mile- 
stones with Latin inscriptions, double-columned window supports from 



An ArchcEological Traveler in Asia Minor. 7 

Christian churclies, are all made to stand as sentinels over the graves of the 
faithful Moslems. Not only this, but ancient Greek tombstones in all their 
endless variety, from the simple slab to the sculptured stele with temple pedi- 
ment, are made to do duty a second time — one of the queerest commentaries 
on the instability of human affairs. The inscriptions as a rule have not 
been erased from these stones, so that one finds on the graves of the Turks 
important decrees of cities, municipal laws, letters of kings to cities, legisla- 
tive regulations and edicts of imperial Rome, the autobiography of wealthy 
or powerful citizens, the cursus honorum of Roman proconsuls and legates, 
and innumerable epitaphs of men dead long ages before the Turkish conquest. 
The inscribed tombstones of the Christian dead were also utilized as tomb- 
stones by the Turks, but they could not brook the cross. Christian tomb- 
stones almost always bore a cross in relief ; sometimes this cross was as high 
as the stone, with the epitaph inscribed on either side of the vertical bar of 
the cross. It was necessary for Moslem pride to erase this cross before such 
a stone could stand over the grave of one of the faithful. They had to 
content themselves with hacking away the relief, but they were of course 
unable to deface the stone so utterly that no traces of the cross remained, 
nay, in many cases it is thus brought into^ greater prominence. But at any 
rate it has been insulted, and that is soothing to rehgious pride and hate. 
According to what we have just seen there are three places where the 
Archaeologist traveler can search for inscriptions without asking leave of any 
one, that is, in the mosques, the fountains, and the cemeteries. But of 
course inscriptions are found in other places, and if they be in private houses, 
then in order to get at them, much diplomacy, both on the part of the Arch- 
aeologist and his servants, is often needed in order to persuade the ever sus- 
picious householder to give one permission to enter the sacred precincts of 
his house and harem. The reasons for this are in the main the following: 

TUEKISH SUPERSTITIONS IN REGARD TO INSCRIPTIONS AND HIDDEN TREASURE. 

/There is a belief that pervades all classes of Turks, both high and low, that 
tnfe^tones which bear inscriptions have money or other treasure either inside 
the stones themselves, or else that the inscriptions on the stones tell where 
money or treasure was hid by the people who fled from their homes when 
the all-conquering hordes of Turks were invading the country more than 
four hundred years ago. , Their theory in regard to the business of the 
Archaeologist is that he is a lineal descendant of the former inhabitants of the 
country, that his family has preserved throughout all these ages traditions in 
regard to vast treasure stowed away by them when they were compelled to 
abandon their former homes, and lastly, that the Archaeologist has come to 
search the country, find the family inscriptions that tell exactly were the 
treasure is hidden, and then return to the home of his adoption laden with 
wealth. Accordingly ignorant peasants are loth to tell of inscriptions in 
their houses, because such stones are their own individual property, and they 
can not bring themselves to give away a secret which may one day be con- 
verted into millions. Nothing whatever can shake their faith in this super- 
stition. Often and often as I was busy copying or making impressions of 
inscriptions, a curious, suspicious mob would collect around me. As a rule I 
had no time to waste upon them; but presently some one would pluck up 
courage enough to ask me where the money was ? When 1 intended to get 
it? How much it was, and whether I would not be generous enough to share 
my wealth with them? I always denied the existence of treasure, and ex- 
plained that my business was to gather up the scattered facts of history, so 



8 , An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

that by weaving together a multitude of facts the historian might be able to 
give something like an accurate account of the country before it was con- 
quered by their ancestors. This was all wasted breath; and possibly my 
servants pursued the wiser plan, for their aim was to get as "much fun as 
possible out of the simple villagers, and . they made it a point to tell them 
that there was buried treasure and that by digging they would find it. The 
natives have dug on their own account in innumerable places, and many 
ancient buildings have been brought to ruin by having their foundations 
undermined by these searchers after hidden treasure. In their search for 
buried gold they are always guided by what they call a Nishan. The word 
Nishan is equivalent to our word sight, i. e., the sight or sights of a rifle gun. 
These Nishan sights are generally round natural holes in rocks, such as are 
often found in the limestone formation. The theory is that they point directly 
toward the spot where the coveted treasure lies hid. But unfortunately they 
only indicate accurately the direction, but not the spot itself, where lies the 
treasure, and it is assumed that the inscriptions, which, alas, they can not 
read, give the information necessary for identifying the exact spot. Accord- 
ingly they envy and hate the interloping Archaeologist, because, in their opin- 
ion, he possesses the knowledge necessary to unravel the mystery and lay 
hold upon the coveted treasure. 

There is a Nishan sight of a different character. The ancients often made 
sun-dials on the walls of buildings, especially on walls that faced the market- 
place. Little grooves, to mark the time of day, radiated from the dial-nail. 
They were chiseled with care on the face of the wall. Now some of these 
grooves of course pointed down to the ground, and according to the prevail- 
ing superstition located exactly the spot where treasure lay buried. Knowing 
as I do the insane mania of the Turks on this subject, I can easily picture to 
myself the ecstasy of joy felt by a peasant on discovering a Nishan sight of 
the latter kind. He hurries home, gathers up the implements necessary for 
unearthing the buried gold. He works secretly, but with might and main, 
hoping to get it alone and unaided. He has not quite reached it. His 
family notices his mysterious absences; they detect and then assist him, 
working with fever heat in order to get the gold before the neighbors find it 
out. But their secrecy and their toil avail them nothing; the matter has be- 
come known to all the villagers; they turn out in a body; a great space is 
soon excavated at the base of the building; the wall totterS; it falls, and one 
more memento of the mighty men of old lies prone in the dust. 

THE SAME SUPERSTITION CAUSED THE DESTRUCTION IN GREECE OP THE CELE- 
BRATED LION OP CHAERONEA. 

I have already mentioned the belief that treasure is safely hid in the in- 
terior of stones that bear inscriptions. How they suppose it to have got 
there is known only to the Turkish intellect; at any rate it is universallly 
believed, and I have seen many stones that have been broken to pieces to 
get the treasure. The treasure is of course not found, but ill success does 
not dampen their ardor, nor shake their faith in the slightest degree. If you 
ask them why they were not successful, the unvarying answer is Allah hilir, 
God knows. This superstition is not confined to the Turks, and is shared 
by the uneducated peasantry of Greece as well. It caused the destruction 
in Greece of one of the most venerable and interesting monuments that had 
come down to us from a hoary antiquity. In the year 338 B. C, Philip, king 
of Macedonia, conquered the allied Athenians and Boeotians in the ever 
memorable field of Chaeronea, thus crushing forever the liberties of Greece. 



An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 9 

The Athenians and BcBotians erected a marble Hon on the battle-field in 
memory of the men who had fallen there. Pausanias, the Greek traveler, 
whose book is still the best guide to Greece, mentions the lion in the follow- 
ing words: "On approaching the city there is the tomb of the Boeotians, 
who fell in the battle with Philip. It has no inscription, but the figure of a 
Hon is placed upon it, as an emblem of the sj)irit of these men. The inscrip- 
tion has been omitted, as I suppose because the gods had willed that their 
fortune should not be equal to their prowess.'" Now during the long war 
between the Greeks and the Turks, the result of which was Greek inde- 
pendence and the establishment of the present kingdom of Greece, the tomb 
of the Boeotians was excavated and the lion found still whole and well pre- 
served. After the war had closed, a Greek general, with the Homeric name 
Odysseus, happened to be passing by the village with a body of men; he 
saw the lion, and being possessed of the belief that gold was in the interior, 
he caused a hole to be drilled in it, and blew it up with gunpowder. Col.- 
Mure says: "The lion may, upon the whole, be pronounced the most inter- 
esting sepulchral monument in Greece, probably in Europe. It is the only one 
dating from the better days of Hellas, with the exception perhaps of the 
tumulus of Marathon, the identity of which is beyond dispute. It is also an 
ascertained specimen of the sculpture of the most perfect period of Greek 
art. That it records the last decisive blow beneath which Hellenic independ- 
ence sunk, never permanently to rise again, were in itself a sufficiently 
strong claim on our warmest sympathies. But the mode in which it records 
that fatal event renders the claim doubly powerful. For this monument 
possesses the affecting peculiarity of being erected not, as usual with those 
situated like itself on a field of battle, to commemorate the victory, but the 
misfortune of the warriors whose bodies repose in the soil beneath — the 
valor, not the success, of their struggle for liberty." But the lion is gone, 
blown to pieces by a general, near the middle of the much vaunted nine- 
teenth century, it a sacred monument that had come down to us as a pos- 
session forever, having braved the malice of man and the ravages of time for 
nearly 2200 years. I have stood by the tomb of the Boeotians, and as I 
gazed upon the fragments of the marble lion, "rage, sorrow, humiliation, 
and shame" filled my breast. 

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN COPYING INSCEIPTIONS. 

But I must return to Asia Minor. From what has been said you can 
readily understand that many monuments that would have given us priceless 
information in regard to the history of a given district have perished forever 
because of greed of gold inspired by a miserable superstition. 

Notwithstanding the sacredness of the cemetery I found that the Turks 
were ever ready to lend me a helping hand in digging about stones that 
marked the graves of their ancestors. Sometimes the stone had fallen and 
lay half buried and would have to be raised or turned over, because I either 
suspected that it contained an inscription, or else a part of the inscription 
would be visible, the rest being under ground. The stones used by the an- 
cients for inscriptions and milestones are massive and heavy. It was always 
necessary for me to call upon the villagers for assistance. In return for a 
few cents they would come with mattocks and levers and soon the inscription 
would be exposed to view. Sometimes after I had finished with a stone in 
a cemetery, they would reverently put it back in its old place, but by no 
means always. Frequently inscriptions would be buried in the walls of 
private houses. As soon as I had ascertained for certain that a given 



10 An Archi^ological Traveler in Asia Minor, 

«tone in the wall of a house bore an inscription, my chief servant would enter 
upon negotiations with the house owner, who in lieu of half a dollar or a dol- 
lar would be found willing to demolish a part of the wall of his house and 
make a hole large enough to enable me to get at the inscription. As I have 
already mentioned, inscriptions are found in all sorts of positions. If they 
are deeply buried bottom side up in the foundations of a mosque or house, 
then a deep hole would have to be dug, and I had to lie with my head down 
in the hole in order to read it. Such a position becomes very painful in a 
short time, and if the inscription be difficult to decipher and the sun be pour- 
ing down upon one with all the concentrated power it has in the East, you 
can readily understand that it requires much firmness to persevere to the bit- 
ter end and until every doubt m regard to the decipherment of the inscription 
disappear. Once I found a number of inscriptions in a wall about fifty feet 
above the ground. I was determined to get a copy of them at any cost, and 
consequently a very long ladder had to be constructed. The lumber for this 
ladder had to be transported about two miles on the shoulders of men, and 
be carried up a steep hill at that. I hired seventeen laboring men and two 
carpenters. When the rough, heavy ladder was done, it was as much as all 
of us — some twenty-five men in all — could do to put it in place, and to move 
it along the face of the wall from one stone to another. The ladder was not 
quite long enough to reach two of the inscriptions, and I had to stand on the 
last round without any support except such as I could get by pressing my 
body closely to the wall. My left hand held my note-book; my right hand 
the lead pencil. If you stand for two hours with your body pressed close to 
a wail and look straight up, long before the time shall have elapsed you will 
realize the extreme painfulness of the position. In my case the painfulness 
was enhanced by the knowledge that I was fifty feet above the ground. In 
additition a fierce wind was blowing, and several times I felt that my epi- 
graphical career was to be cut short then and there. At any rate I have 
always felt that those incriptions were purchased at a price. Another time I 
discovered a great inscription cut in huge letters on the face of an almost 
perpendicular rock, the top of the inscription being about forty feet from 
the ground. The letters were so overgrown with moss that the inscription 
could not be read from below even with the help of a glass. So there was 
nothing left but to scramble up as best I might, and clean out the letters. 
"With the assistance of my men I managed to get up to a projecting shelf on 
the rock about twenty feet from the ground. Once on the projecting shelf 
I had to remove my shoes and crawl up the rest of the way with fingers and 
toes. The top of the inscription was reached and all the letters were cleaned 
out in a vertical line as far as my arms could reach. But I could not move 
horizontally along the face of the rock, and it became necessary to crawl 
down and then up again at a different place. Finally the whole inscription 
was cleaned out, and then all the climbing had to be gone over again twice; 
first, in order to copy the inscription, and secondly, in order to verify my 
copy. "When this was done I was completely exhausted and trembled in 
every fibre. Then I discovered to my horror that I could not get down from 
the projecting shelf on which I stood. Again and again I tried, but my 
courage failed me each time, and I scrambled back to the projecting shelf. The 
matter became serious, and at last I made up my mind that the only way out 
of the difficulty was to climb down as far as I could and then let all holds go 
and drop. This was done. My men stood below and broke the fall with their 
arms and bodies. Fortunately the inscription proved to be of the greatest 
value for fixing the topography of the surrounding country, and that at least 
was some recompense for all my trouble and danger in securing a copy of it. 



An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 11 



THE CELEBRATED EDICT OF OKCISTUS. 

More than fifty years ago an inscription was copied by Hamilton at the site 
of Orcistus, in northeastern Phrygia. The work of copying it was done very 
badly. When Mommsen came to edit it in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latina- 
rum, it became evident that the inscription was one of the greatest import- 
ance for historical purposes, inasmuch as it was a copy of a decree of one of 
the Roman emperors conferring municipal rights on the town of Orcistus. 
So anxious was Mommsen, who was then busied in writing his history of 
Rome, to secure an accurate copy, that, at his instance, an expedition was sent 
out under the auspices of the museum of Berlin for the especial purpose of 
finding the stone and of copying the inscription. This was somewhere about 
the year 1850; I do not know the exact date at the moment of writing this. 
Mordtmann, the leader of the expedition, knew from Hamilton's statements 
that the stone was somewhere about a mill, but he did not succeed in finding 
it, and the expedition proved a complete failure. In the year 1883 I was 
traveling in Phrygia with W. M. Ramsay, a Scotch gentleman, now professor 
in the University of Aberdeen. We determined to find that stone if it 
were still in existence. "One night in September, several hours after sunset, 
we reached Alikel, the site of Orcistus. Next morning we found that our 
tent had been pitched amid a wide-spread Turcoman encampment close beside 
a cemetery, which was full of ancient marbles. A glance at one long in- 
scription, which bore the name of the city, showed us that we had indeed 
reached the site of Orcistus. Mordtmann in trying to find the inscription 
made the great mistake of showing too hurriedly the reason of his visit; 
whereas it is a universal rule in the East that if you wish to get anything 
you must show complete indiiference about it. We therefore asked no ques- 
tions about the inscription which we were really in search of. We bought 
the largest sheep that could be found, invited the elders of the village to sup- 
per, and committed to them the task of roasting the sheep whole, while we 
occupied ourselves in copying the inscriptions in the cemetery. When even- 
ing arrived one of our men, who had been carefully instructed in what was 
to be done, presided at the feast, and gradually drew the conversation in the 
proper direction. He soon learned all that we wished. Many of the vil- 
lagers remembered Mordtmann's visit, and told with much glee how he 
looked in vain for the stone, which was concealed at a mill, called the Bash 
Deirmen, that is, the uppermost mill on the stream. Next morning we went 
to the Bash Deirmen, and _ soon found out where the stone was hidden. It 
was still where Hamilton describes it, supporting an embankment which con- 
ducts a stream of wS,ter to the mill. But whereas in Hamilton's time the in- 
scribed stone was at the outer side of the embankment, the mill has since 
been enlarged, and the whole embankment widened. Thus the stone came 
to be in the centre of the embankment, completely hidden from view, and 
could hardly have been found except by the voluntary information of the 
natives. A bargain was -soon struck with the owner of the mill, which at 
that season was not working. He agreed to break down a few yards of the 
embankment, and allow us to see the stone. The price of this concession 
was about $10. But when the stone was disclosed our disappointment 
was great. It was covered with a thick incrustation, deposited by the water 
of the mill-stream. This incrustation was very hard, and we had no means 
of removing it, while it was so thick that it entirely concealed a great part of 
the inscription, though in a few places where it was less thick Latin letters 
could be discerned. We saw that a few passages might be deciphered by 



12 An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

bringing out the stone from its concealment into an advantageous position; 
but we also reflected that if we brought it out and showed great interest in it, 
it would certainly be destroyed in search of the gold hidden inside, as soon 
as we left the place. Within a few minutes, therefore, we formed a resolution 
to say that the stone was poor, and to return again in some futu.re year when 
we had learned the art of removing incrustation from marble. We declared 
that we had seen enough, waited only long enough to be sure that the em- 
bankment was restored, and left the village next morning."* 

Here ended my individual connection with this stone, but my companion, Mr. 
Ramsay, returned to Orcistus in 1886. -He had been instructed at the Museum 
of Berlin how to remove the incrustation, and had a set of implements to be 
used in the work. Arrived at Orcistus, he again showed no immediate inter- 
est in the great stone, encamped far away, and expressed only a desire to see 
again the long Greek inscription which we had copied in 1883. This latter 
stone, as we expected, had been destroyed in search of treasure after we left. 
After some diplomacy similar to that already described the stone once more 
lay uncovered. After four days of work the inscription that had cost so 
much money and time was copied completely and -saved for science and his- 
tory. Of course the stone has long since ceased to exist, for after what had 
happened, the villagers would not be Turks if they did not have a look at 
the inside of that stone. But after the inscription has been copied, the stone 
may perish unregretted — it has told its tale. 

THE TALE OF ST. ABERCIUS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF A PART OF HIS EPITAPH. 

St. Abercius is a name with which most people are unfamiliar, even though 
they be good Catholics and otherwise acquainted with the Hagiology of their 
church. Yet, as I hope to show, Abercius was a man of great importance in 
his day. "The chief authority for the life of St. Abercius is the biography 
by Symeon Metaphrastes, written about 900 A. D.," and preserved in the 
Acta Sanctorum, October 22. "It quotes the epitaph on the saint's tomb, 
and the question whether this epitaph is an original document of the second 
century A. D., or a later forgery, is one of the utmost importance for the early 
history of the Christian Church, and of many literary points connected with 
it."t 

Abercius was a man of mind and sanctity, and about the year 163 A. D. 
became bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia Parva. The following is an outline 
of his life as given in the Acta Sanctorum : Such was his holiness that he 
could not only heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and drive out devils, but 
he had power over Beelzebub, the prince of devils, as well. The first years 
of the life of Abercius as bishop were spent in work at Hieropolis, but as 
time went on his fame increased, and, as is stated in the epitaph, he undertook 
long journeys of mercy throughout the Roman provinces of Asia. On these 
Journeys he was always accompanied by the Devil, as a kind of valet, ready at 
all times to execute the behests of his master, the saintly bishop. Once 
upon his return from sucL. a journey to his home and bishopric at Hieropolis, 
he found that the Emperor Marcus Aurehus had promulgated a decree order- 
ing solemn sacrifices to the gods to be offered throughout the empire of the 
East. This decree aroused the dormant fanaticism of Abercius, and with 
the help of his no less fanatical followers, he broke to pieces the statues of 



*Taken from Mr. Ramsay's account of the finding of the stone, as pubhshed by Mommsen 
in Hermes XXII, 309 sqq. 

fThis and the following quotations are taken from Mr. Ramsay's article, " The Tale of 
Saint Abercius," pubhshed in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1882, p. 339 sqq. 



An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 13 

the gods in all the temples of Hieropolis. This was a brutal and high- 
handed proceeding which the pagan Hierpolitans could not brook, not that 
they respected their ancient, but now moribund, religion very much, but be- 
cause they feared the vengeance of the Romans, who were wont to visit with 
condign punishment any city which merely neglected the cult of the Emperors, 
.and all the more was this vengeance to be feared when positive insults had 
been offered. For under the gods we must here understand, not the Olympic 
gods, but chiefly the Roman Emperors themselves, whose cultus, along with 
that of such new gods as Isis, Bendis, Mithras, Men, Ma, etc., had now almost 
completely usurped the place formerly held by the Olympic deities of classi- 
cal times. This was especially true of Asia Minor, whose; inhabitants had 
for centuries been accustomed to pay divine honors first to the Persian kings 
and then to Alexander the Great and to his successors. Even the mild and 
sensible Augustus insisted on being worshipped as a god in Asia Minor. At 
first we find him and Li via, his wife, worshipped conjointly with the Olympic, 
deities. A little later on, however, we find everywhere temples built and 
dedicated to the gods who sat on the imperial throne of Rome in their own 
names. I myself have found a number of inscriptions dedicating temples to the 
Emperors. At the time of Augustus this worship of the new imperial gods 
was frowned upon at Rome, but it was insisted upon in the provinces as a sym- 
bol of Roman dominion. It seems to have been distasteful to some of the cities 
of Asia Minor in spite of their previous training at the hands of the Per- 
sians, and especially of the successors of Alexander, who insisted on the 
principle of kingship ~by divine right to an extent that would appall even the 
Asiatic autocrats of to-day. When Cyzicus was taken by the Romans, Pom- 
pey the Great granted certain privileges to the city. When Augustus came 
into power he confirmed the Cyzicans in these privileges. But later on they 
were guilty of neglecting the cult of Augustus, who punished them by de- 
priving them of these privileges. Thus spurred on to good works, the Cyzi- 
cans began in a surly humor to build a temple to Augustus. At this 
juncture Augustus died, and work on the temple was suspended, as being no 
longer necessary. This aroused the wrath of the moody Tiberius, who 
chastised the city with great severity on account of this neglect, called in law 
incuria caeremoniarum Augusti. 

The Hierpolitans then had all cause to fear the vengeance of the gods who 
wore the imperial purple of Rome. Accordingly, those of them who were 
not Christians determined to visit Abercius and his followers with summary 
punishment, and a mob collected around the Episcopal palace to lynch the 
holy iconoclast It was one of those supreme moments which make or mar 
a hero. Abercius saw his danger and realized that nothing short of a mira- 
cle could save him from immediate death. But he was equal to the occasion. 
By the simple exertion of his miraculous power he healed three men in the 
crowd who happened to be possessed with devils. By this miracle he not 
only saved his life, but the city of Hieropolis was converted, and Abercius 
had the great satisfaction of baptizing on the spot five hundred of his would- 
be lynchers. 

The unfortunate matter' seems to have been amicably adjusiea with the 
powers in Rome. At any rate the troubles at Hieropolis caused the fame of 
Abercius to reach the ears of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius just at the time 
when Lucilla, his da,ughter, had the misfortune to be possessed of a devil. 
Abercius, the wonder-worker, was straightway summoned from Hieropolis to 
Rome to expel this devil from the princess. The presence of Abercius in 
Rome seems to have been satisfactory to all concerned, and especially so 
to himself. Leaving Rome he extended his travels to Syria and Baby- 



14 An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

Ionia, returning after a time to Hieropolis, where he continued to work mira- 
cles. Among other miracles, and probably as a sanatory measure, he caused 
a large hot spring to arise in the plain near Hieropolis. This spring exists at 
the present day, and is a popular health resort of the people of all the sur- 
rounding country. At the time of my visit to it our tent was pitched alongside 
of a number of others belonging to people who had come from a distance in _ 
order to take the baths. The building which now covers this spring is fitted 
up m approved style of the Turkish bath. The abundant water is so hot that 
artificial heating is rendered superfluous, a fact in which it is still easy to see the 
hand of the devil. While at Rome Abercius took a fancy to the beautiful 
white marble of Carrara, and longed to have a block of it at Hieropolis to 
be used as his tombstone. Accordingly, he ordered his obedient servant, the 
devil, to transport a block from the Circus Maximus at Rome to Hieropolis 
and inscribe on it the epitaph of Abercius in words indited and dictated by 
the saint himself. The devil carried out to the letter the instructions of his 
master. The original Greek of this epitaph, thus miraculously inscribed, 
consists of a number of limping hexameters, and is quoted in full in the life 
of the saint, as cited above. It gives an account of his holy life, miracles, 
and journeys. But until recent years the very existence of St. Abercius 
has been doubted, the whole legend of the Acta Sanctorum has ■ been 
mocked at, and of course the tale of the epitaph and the block of marble 
has been treated with due obloquy. "Tillemont," the historian, "has argued 
that the life of the saint as written by Metaphrastes is a mere fiction, and that 
the epitaph is as worthless as the biography. He is much shocked with the 
levity of the epitaph, for the only incidents of his Roman journey recorded 
by the saint are his seeing the Empress in her gold robes and shoes, and 
the people who wore rings, i. e., the senators and equites. He, therefore, 
condemns the epitaph as unworthy of a holy and aged bishop, and one about 
to die." But leaving this point out of the question, "the arguments of Tille- 
mont on historical grounds are so weighty that the epitaph could not be 
quoted as historical, however much one might incline to count it genuine. 
In particular Tillemont's argument that there was no room for Abercius and 
his successor in the list of Bishops of Hieropolis was apparently unanswera- 
ble. In the biography Abercius is conceived as having lived a considerable 
time, and travelled much after his Roman visit in 163 A. D. He is suc- 
ceeded by another Abgrcius; and yet it is a known fact that the bishop of 
Hierapolis in 171 A. D., was ApoUinaris." 

HIEEAPOLIS AND HIEROPOLIS, 

Mark the name Hierapolis. Heretofore I have been saying Hieropolis; I 
have just now mentioned the name Hierapolis for the first time in your 
hearing. In 1882 Mr. Ramsay made it clear both by the evidence of in- 
scriptions and of coins that there were two cities, the one Hieropolis, the 
other Hierapolis. Hierapolis is the city with which you are all familiar from 
the New Testament, and which lies in the Maeander valley in Phrygia Magna, 
and which, along with the neighboring Laodicea and Colossse, accepted 
Christianity in the time of St. Paul. Hieropolis does not yet appear on any 
map with which my audience is familiar. It is situated in the plain of San- 
dukli, a three days' journey directly northeast of Hierapohs, and is in 
Phrygia Parva. Thus the arguments of Tillemont fall at once to the ground, 
for if there be no place for Abercius on the hst of Bishops of Hierapolis, 
there is a warm place for him on the list of Bishops of Hieropolis. But that 
is not all. The toil of the archaeological explorer is sometimes rewarded-with 



An Archcsological Traveler in Asia Minor. 15 

startling results. In the summer of 1883 Mr. Ramsay and I not only located 
definitely the site of Hieropolis, but we actually found what remains of the 
marble block which bore the epitaph quoted in the Acta Sanctorum. The 
stone has been broken into two parts, of which we found one. This part con- 
tains not only enough of the inscription to identify it at a glance as the 
epitaph of Abercius, but actually makes it possible to correct some errors of 
the text as given in the Acta Sanctorum. Nay more, the stone was found 
in the apodyterium of the Turkish bath mentioned above, and we had the 
keen satisfaction of making a paper squeeze of Abercius's epitaph with the 
help of the water of the hot springs created by Abercius himself, with the 
help of the devil. The discovery of that stone produced a sensation in cer- 
tain quarters, especially in France, where M. I'Abb^ Duchesne, with these 
data as a starting point, has worked over the whole question in all its bear- 
ings. The same has been done in part in England by Mr. Ramsay. " The 
confusion of the two towns Hierapolis and Hieropolis has produced much 
error in early Christian history. In the Introduction to the Epistles to the 
" Colossians and Philemon (p. 55 ff.), the Bishop of Durham has rightly 
caught the ring of genuineness in the epitaph of Abercius, but the longstand- 
ing geographical mistake made it impossible to explain the historical difficuL 
ties." These difficulties are numerous and are interesting, but they have all 
been solved by the discoveries just mentioned, and I can not dwell farther 
on them here. '* The personality of Abercius formed a centre round whicL 
gathered a religious myth, containing the popular conception of the early 
history of Christianity in Phrygia. The incidents recorded in the epitaph 
were entwined with other historical and semi-historical facts. To these were 
added some ancient and originally pagan local legends about certain natural 
features of the district. Finally about 370 A. D., the local mythology was 
committed to writing, and the life of St Abercius took nearly the form that 
it has in the work of Metaphrastes." 

DISCOVERY OF THE SITE OF LYSTEA. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas being at Iconium, we 
read: " And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also 
of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefuUy and to stone them, 
they were ware of it, and fled into Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and 
unto the region that lieth round about." Then follows an account of Paul's 
successful work in Lystra, but " there came thither certain Jews from Antioch 
and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him 
out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood 
round about him, he rose up and came into the city; and the next day he 
departed with Barnabas to Derbe." 

For the Christian the city of Lystra will always have a certain interest as 
being the scene of some of the labors and the stoning of Paul. Singularly 
enough we know of Lystra mainly from the Acts of the Apostles. History 
knows very little concerning the city, and that little is that it was an impor- 
tant episcopal see throughout the Byzantine times. It should be added that 
in recent years some further facts have come to light in regard to the city, 
showing that in Roman times it was a very important place, and indeed we 
must concede to it certain importance even from St. Paul's account. About 
fifteen years ago the first coin of Lystra was found ; from this coin it at once 
became clear that the city had been turned into a Roman colony, whose offi- 
cial title was Julia Fehx Gemina Lystra, and this knowledge made it still 
more necessary to discover the site, because important historical inscriptions 



16 An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

are always to be looked for on the site of 'a Roman colony. Many have been 
the conjectures made by geographers in regard to the site of Lystra. It has 
been located at places many miles apart; the most generally approved site 
up to the present is nearly one hundred miles from the true site. Col. 
Leake made a happy guess as to the site and by chance hit the spot exactly. 
But his assumption was rejected by all geographers, and the site of Lystra 
remained a puzzle as before. 

On my journey of exploration during the summer of 1885, I discovered 
the site and put the matter beyond all cavil by means of a Latin inscription, 
which bears the full official name of the Roman colony of Lystra. This in- 
scription tells us that the city of Lystra erected a statue to the emperor 
Augustus by order of the Decurions. The inscription is cut on what is 
usually called a cippus, that is, a pedestal square in the ground plan and with 
moldings at top and bottom. On this pedestal once stood the statue of Au- 
gustus,* and the pedestal still stands erect on the site of Lystra, spared by 
time and vandalism to tell its tale and to locate the important city. As I 
kneeled before the stone to copy the inscription and saw that I had found 
Lystra, you may believe that I was filled with gladness and joy. For Paul 
himself had stood before that very stone and with his own eyes had read 
those very identical letters, and to me, alone of all the Christian world, was it 
allotted to stand on the site of Lystra and view the scene where God's holy 
apostle was stoned. The mission of that stone is now fulfilled, and it matters 
little how soon the Turks break it up in their search for pelf or for building 
materials. But surely it would be a grand thing for some museum or Chris- 
tian institution to come into possession of that stone. Such stones are rare, 
and they are very precious, with a preciousness that can not be measured by 
filthy gold. A few days after the discovery of the site of Lystra I had the 
good fortune to buy a coin of the city. This coin bears the name of the 
Roman colony, Julia Felix G-emina Lystra, and is very valuable for a mu- 
seum or collection of coins, being the fourth coin of Lystra that is known. 

DISCOVERY OF NEW ISATJRA AND ITS BEAKINa ON THE ORLEANS FRAG-MENTS 

OF SALLUST. 

While my headquarters were at Lystra I made an excursion of a day 
toward the south, and on this excursion I stumbled upon another important 
city, whose name was fortunately given by a Greek inscription found on the 
site. This city was New Isaura (Isaura Nova). Old Isaura (Isaura Yetus) 
had been discovered by Hamilton some fifty years ago, and until my dis- 
covery it was thought that Old and New Isaura were really one and the same 
city under difierent names. New Isaura being regarded as the name of 
Isaura after an assumed destruction and rebuilding. Now during the winter 
of 1886 the Austrian Imperial Academy of Sciences sent a young man. Dr. 
Edward Hauler, to Orleans in France to copy certain manuscripts of some of 
the Church Fathers. While Dr. Hauler was engaged in this work he 
discovered that the manuscript on which he was at work was a palimpsest. 
Applying the proper reagents he found that a manuscript of the History of 
Sallust had been erased to make way for the words of the Church Father. 
It soon became evident too that he had before him a part of the History of 
Sallust not hitherto known. The fragment thus discovered treats of the 
siege and conquest of Isaura Nova by the Roman Consul Servilius, and you 

*The holes cut in the marble for the feet of the statue of Augustus are still to be seen on 
the top of the pedestal. 



An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 17 

will observe that it is New Isaura which Saliust mentions. Dr. Hauler in- 
formed Prof. Mommsen and the principal scholars of Germany of his dis- 
covery, and in a preliminary publication of the Saliust fragments, he located 
Isaura Nova at Old Isaura, and very naturally too, for it was not yet known 
that there were two Isauras. Prof. Mommsen put the Saliust fragments into 
my hands and called Dr. Hauler's attention to my exploration of Isauria. It 
then became clear that I could throw important light on the Saliust frag- 
ments, because my minute explorations of all the country around both the 
cities which bore the name Isaura made me perfectly familiar with the lay of 
the land. Now Frontinus mentions this siege of Servilius as the siege of 
Isaura, without stating which Isaura was meant, or rather leaving us to infer 
that their was but one Isaura. Frontinus tells us that Servilius could only 
take the city by turning the course of the river from which the besieged 
citizens got their water. Just here then is where topographical knowledge 
comes to the assistance of the historian. Dr. Hauler having assumed that 
the words of the Saliust fragments and of Frontinus had reference to Old 
Isaura was naturally compelled to assume that it was the Calycadnus (in 
which Barbarossa was drowned), which, according to Frontinus, was turned 
out of its channel in order to bring the city to terms. The Calycadnus is a 
large river which flows past Old Isaura, but at a distance of three miles from 
it. This distance was of course one great point against the assumption of 
Dr. Hauler. But there is still another point. I had explored the Calycad- 
nus River virtually from its mouth to its source, and for at least a hundred 
miles it lies in a deep canyon, which opposite Old Isaura is 1000 feet deep. 
Consequently even had the Calycadnus been close enough to give water to 
the city of Isaura, there was no more possibility of changing -its course than 
there is of moving Pike's Peak. Then the words of Frontinus and of the 
Saliust fragments do not refer to Old, but to New Isaura, the city whose site 
I had the good fortune to discover. Now either of the two rivers that unite 
immediately below New Isaura can be turned out of their channel without 
any difficulty, a fact that puts the question of the indentification beyond all 
doubt. But to make certainty doubly sure my topographical knowledge adds 
still another point as cumulative evidence. The Saliust fragments inform us 
that Servilius occupied a hill overlooking the city, from which hill the Roman 
troops bombarded the town. This hill was sacred to the Great Mother, bet- 
ter known probably as Cybele. This tallies exactly with the topography of 
the site. There is a small hill lying immediately beside the ruins of the city, 
the only hill in fact in the vicinity. Thus then the site of New Isaura and 
the scene of the siege of Servilius are put beyond question. 

LOCATING- THE SITES OF ANCIENT CITIES. 

From 'what I have already said above you will have gathered that it is 
absolutely necessary that the Archaeological traveler should know how to 
make a route survey of the country which is the scene of his explorations. 
For thus he is able in places to create the modern map, in places to correct 
and add to the labors of travelers who may have preceded him. But leav- 
ing out of question the map of to-day, important though it be, it is the map 
of antiquity which is one of the chief problems to the solution of which the 
earnest attention of the Archaeological traveler must be directed. Conse- 
quently the location of ancient cities is a matter of prime importance. A 
city is best and most incontrovertibly located by the evidence of inscriptions 
wMch bear its name in some way or other and which are found at or near 
the site. Of course one generally finds the site first, but it has happened to 



18 An Archceological Traveler in Asia Minor, 

me to find the name of a city before finding the site, and in such a case one 
must scour the country far and wide in order to find the site to which the 
name belonged. In one instance I found the name a full month before the 
site turned up, and then it was located by the modern Turkish corruption of 
the ancient Greek name ( Gorgorome, corrupted by the Turks to Gulghurum). 

THE LOCATINa OF TAVIUM AND ITS BEARING ON THE GEO&KAPHY OP NORTH- 
EASTERN ASIA MINOR. 

Tavium, a city of northwestern Oappadocia, was a city of importance at 
the very beginning of history, and continued to be the emporium of the 
whole surrounding country down possibly to early Byzantine times. The 
celebrated rock sculptures of the neighboring Boghazkieui and Euyuk prove 
that Tavium was inhabited by that enigmatical people who have left endur- 
ing memorials of their high civilization in the rock sculptures found through- 
out Asia Minor and northern Syria, and the seat of whose empire seems to 
have been Carchemish on the Euphrates. This people has of late been called 
the Kheta, or Hittites. Some scholars are dissatisfied with the name Hittite, 
and for the remains in Asia Minor, at least, prefer the name of Cappadocian 
or Anatolian art. After the Hittite period Tavium continued to flourish 
un.der the Persians, and was an important station on what Herodotus calls the 
Royal Road, leading from Ephesus to Susa. Over this road traveled the 
earliest recorded postal service, carrying dispatches from the western sea- 
board of Asia Minor to the royal court at distant Susa. Under the Roman 
Empire Tavium still occupied an important place among the cities of the in- 
terior of Asia Minor. It was the centre of the Roman road system for the 
whole of northwestern Oappadocia, Pontus, and Galatia, being the point of 
divergence of seven Roman roads, and from Tavium distances were measured 
along each of thesfe seven roads. Oonsequently it is a matter of the highest 
importance for ancient geography to have the site of Tavium located with 
absolute certainty. An elaborate postal service was kept up throughout the 
Roman Empire, and several lists of Roman postal stations have come down to 
us, and they are very precious for ancient geography. The most important 
of these lists is the Antonine Itinerary, so called because it contains the offi- 
cial list of the postal stations under Antoninus Pius. These lists give not 
only the names of the postal stations, but also the distance from station to 
station in Roman miles, beginning from a certain city which was the point 
from which distances were measured for the whole surrounding country for 
at least 200 miles. Those of you who have been in Rome will remember the 
triumphal arch of Septimius Severus. Just by the side of this arch once 
stood the Milliarium Aureum, or golden milestone, remains of which may be 
seen at the present day. This Milliarium Aureum was erected in the year 
28 B. 0., by the emperor Augustus, and it was the point from wEich dis- 
tances were measured on all the roads radiating from Rome. Similar Mil- 
liaria were erected in Asia Minor in the cities which were the starting points 
from which distances were measured along the roads of a given province. 
Many of these starting points are given in the Itineraries mentioned above, 
or in the Peutinger Table — an ancient map, that has come down to us by a 
happy chance — but many of the starting points are not given, and it is one of 
the chief aims of the Archaeologist to hunt up the Roman milestones that may 
have been spared by time and barbarism, in order to gather from them irre- 
fragible hints in regard to the topography of the region of country which 
happens to be the subject of his explorations. You will see from the above 
remarks how important it is to get the starting point fixed beyond the shadow 



An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 19 

of a doubt. For if that be once fixed, then the location of the cities or postal 
stations between, say, Tavium and Ancyra, is comparatively easy and requires 
only patient investigation of the region of country on the line of march be- 
tween Tavium and Ancyra. Thus at a distance of, let us say, twenty Roman 
miles, as one travels west from Tavium, the traveler knows from the Itin- 
erary, or Peutinger Table, that he must try to find the ruins of a town or of 
a postal station, and consequently he scours the country until he find the 
object of his search. In many cases the station would be so insignificant 
that no remains of it will have been spared to the present day, for often the 
stations mentioned in the Itineraries were nothing more than temporary 
quarters for the change of horses, and consisted simply in buildings for the 
care of the relays of horses and the entertainment of the ofiicials in charge 
of them. But it matters little if the traveler find no traces of these insig- 
nificant intermediate stations, provided the mileage of the Itinerary between 
two given fixed points, such as Tavium and Ancyra, be ascertained to be be- 
yond all doubt. In that case it is only necessary for the traveler to measure 
off the distances of the Itinerary, and he has the whole line fixed with a very 
near approach to certainty. If he do find one or more of the intervening 
stations, of course that makes the matter still more certain. 

Now geographers, from the time when they first began to make maps of 
ancient Asia Minor, have sorely needed a certain and trustworthy identifica- 
tion of the site of Tavium, and it has been located by different travelers at 
places a whole degree and a half distant from the actual site. True, some 
have located it at the proper place, but none of the identific9,tions could be , 
proven positively, and consequently the site of Tavium continued to be a 
mooted question until the year 1884. During the summer of that year it 
was my good fortune to find the first milestone on the Eoman road between 
Tavium and Ancyra. I had found the site before I found the stone. This 
milestone locates Tavium definitely and finally, and enables the geographer 
to fill in with comparative ease the map of the country reaching west to An- 
cyra and east to Csesarea, Sebastia, Amisus, Amasia, etc. Afterwards I found 
the 100th milestone on the same road. 

THE IDENTIFICATION OP THE. SITES OP ANCIENT TOWNS BY TUEKISH CORRUPTIONS 

OP THE ANCIENT NAME. 

I have already stated above that the evidence of inscriptions which bear 
the name of the place is the best and most incontrovertible means of locat- 
ing a city, but often, in default of this direct epigraphical evidence, a clear 
case of the corruption of the ancient name by the Turks is a most safe way 
of identification. Thus after finding and locating Tavium by means of the 
inscription just mentioned, I traveled northward following the line of the 
ancient Roman road as laid down in the Peutinger Table, and at Tamba 
Hassan I found several badly defaced Roman milestones, a fact which proved 
that I was actually on the line of the Roman road. Now the Peutinger 
Table gives Tomba as the first station on this road at a distance of thirteen 
Roman miles from Tavium, and it takes very little acumen to discover the 
lomha of the Peutinger Table in the Turkish Tamla Hassan. This then is 
the way in which the map is filled in with ease and certainty after the true 
starting point of the Roman road system has been discovered. 

ROMAN MILESTONES. 

The Roman milestone was a block of roughly hewn limestone about four 
feet in diameter at the base and about nine feet high. It tapered off grad- 



20 An ArchcBological Traveler in Asia Minor. 

ually toward the top in a cone-like fashion, being about one foot and a half 
in diameter at the bluntly rounded top. The majority of these milestones 
were inscribed, in Latin of course, and these inscriptions give not only the 
name of the Emperor under whose reign the road was constructed or re- 
paired, but, what is a matter of great importance for the history of the time, 
they give the name of the Roman governor during whose term of office the 
road was constructed or repaired. I found in all about one hundred in- 
scribed milestones. Many of these were inscribed two and three times. When 
the road was originally built they erected along the entire line of the road 
milestones bearing inscriptions- dated by the name of the then reigning em- 
peror and giving the name of the governor of the province who constructed 
the road. Now with the lapse of time the road and especially the bridges 
had fallen into decay. A new Emperor was wearing the purple at Romej 
a new governor, who cared not for the works of long past predecessors, was 
now lording it in the province. This new governor would repair the roads 
and bridges, but instead of going to the expense of having new milestones 
made, he simply had his inscription cut on the old stones and directly over the 
old inscription without having first erased it. Now while the marks of the 
chisel were fresh and unweathered the new inscription might be read with 
comparative ease, but as soon as time and weather had worn off the fresh- 
ness of the new inscription, then it became a matter of science to decipher 
the twain. It sometimes happened that a third inscription was cut over the 
already existing two. I have found several such milestones, and you can 
easily imagine my despair when brought face to face with such a stone. But 
persevering study and painstaking combination of details enabled me to work 
them all out satisfactorily. The most of these milestones were found in 
Cataonia, the region east of the Antitaurus range of mountains. At the time 
I was traveling eastward toward the Euphrates from Comana, the seat of 
the worship of the great goddess Ma, in whose temple at Comana no less 
than 6000 slaves were kept busy, and whose chief priest was virtual king 
of Cappadocia. Judging then from the importance of Comana one might 
naturally expect to find that it was the starting point of the system of Roman 
roads for the Trans- Antitauran region. But about two hours east of Comana 
I found the 144th milestone. This then was proof positive that Comana was 
not the starting place of the road system, for had it it been such, then the 
milestone would have been the seventh or at most the tenth instead of the 
144th. As I continued to journey eastward and to discover new milestones, 
it was found that the numbers steadily decreased until finally it became cer- 
tain that Melitene, on, or rather not far from, the Euphrates, was the starting 
point of which I was in quest. These milestones, besides their great histor- 
ical value, enable me to make some corrections in the text of the Antonme 
Itinerary, where it can be proven that the distances given in the Itinerary do 
not tally with the actual distances between two known points, such as Comana 
and Cocussus. For instance a slovenly scribe might easily write XXV (25 
miles), where it can be proven that the text must be amended to read XV 
(15 miles). 

EOMAN KOADS IN THE PALMYRENE DESERT. 

After my explorations in Cataonia where I came into daily contact with 
the Roman milestone, I became a member of the Wolfe expedition to Baby- 
lonia. On the home journey from Babylon and Baghdad we crossed the 
Syrian desert. About one day's journey east of Palmyra in the desert my 
eyes suddenly feU upon a large stone lying by the roadside. It was a Roman 



An Arch(sological Traveler in Asia Minor. 21 

milestone, but uninscribed. However it served to put me on the alert. 
Further on another was found, and still another until finally I had the satis- 
faction of finding an inscribed stone, the eigMh on the Roman road from Pal- 
myra to Aracha. It is well known that people, manners, customs, and names 
change very slowly in the conservative East, nay, the life of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob may be seen throughout the Mesopotamia and Chaldea of to- 
day, and many of the cities whose names were familiar to the patriarchs of 
the Bible still bear their Biblical names. Of this intense stability liotli the 
names on this eighth milestone are interesting examples. Palmyra, as proba- 
bly some of you know, is but the Latin translation of the Shemetic Tedmur, 
or the place of the palms, and its name is still Tedmur, and nothing but Ted- 
mur, throughout the Orient of the present day, Aracha, the other name 
mentioned in the inscription of this milestone, is the Latinized form of the 
Shemetic name Erek, and this Erek is still existant, and still bears the name 
Erek. It is the first station east of Palmyra. Leaving this eighth mile^ 
stone, we journeyed on towards Palmyra, finding nearly all of the remaining 
seven, some of them being still in position. "West of Palmyra we found the 
Roman road leading from Palmyra to Hama, and followed it for about five 
miles, finding inscribed milestones, all sUll erect and in position. If we did not 
know the exact length of the Roman mile it might be measured from the 
stones of this road. I say road, but it is no longer such. We were travel- 
ing without any road over the desert with native guides who knew where the 
water puddles were to be found in the spring of the year. We simply stum- 
bled upon the first milestone, and shortly afterwards another one was descried 
in the distance, thus we got the direction of the road and followed it for 
a few miles, as long indeed as prudence would allow, and we turned away 
from the road and the milestones in silence and in sorrow. Some future 
traveler who has the 'courage to venture over the trackless waste between 
Palmyra and Hama will reap a rich epigraphical harvest. These milestones of 
the desert are of prime historical importance, because, before their discovery, 
scholars never dreamed that the Roman system of roads extended through 
the desert to the Euphrates and possibly down the river to Babylon and 
Seleucia. Previous travelers to Palmyra had failed to discover these stones, 
probably because they did not know what the Roman milestone looked like. 
There is something awe-inspiring about these hoary guardians of the 
Roman road, simple and rough though they be. Like the Roman sentinel 
of old, they are still true to their trust, eloquent and stately reminders of the 
mighty deeds of mighty Rome. Fourteen, fifteen hundred years have passed 
over them; they have witnessed the prolonged death struggle of the impe- 
rial city of the seven hills; they have seen empires, nations arise and grow 
wanton in the pride of strength only to return to the nothingness from which 
they sprang, but still they stand proudly erect, simple, austere, sublime, in the 
silence and the solitude of the desert, bidding defiance to time and to man. 



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